But in spite of the strange melancholy of the place, the two girls were in much better spirits than they had been on the previous day. The successful passage over the ledge had brought about a reaction, and a remark of Holman's caused Barbara Herndon to laugh with all the spontaneity that was noticeable upon The Waif. The effect of that ripple of laughter was startling. The sound rebounded from the rocky cliffs, cannoned against the barriers opposite, and then bounced backward and forward till the whole atmosphere of the valley seemed alive with the laughter of sprites. For quite five minutes we stood listening, then the silence chased the last faint echoes out across the cliffs, and we breathed again.
"It is the Valley of Echoes," said Leith. "The cliffs throw back the sound in a marvellous manner."
"I'll not laugh again, not in this spot," murmured Barbara Herndon. "Those noises chilled my blood."
In spite of a blazing sun we found the air unpleasantly cool in the shaded spots as we struggled slowly through the undergrowth. The moist flabbiness of uncommon tropical plants startled us whenever the leaves brushed against our faces and hands, while the constant popping of the green pods of the nupu, the sounds resembling nothing so much as the groans of a person in extreme pain, did not have a cheering effect upon the party. The Professor was the only one who seemed to be actually enjoying himself, and even his joy was tempered by a malignant Fate. While endeavouring to dot down some information tendered him by Soma, he had tripped upon a vine that was in wait for such an opportunity, and he skinned his nose badly upon a projecting rock.
But rocks or vines would not dampen the Professor's ardour. He saw himself upon a pedestal that he would build out of the Polynesian lore and the relics which he would collect. With Spartan fortitude he would not allow the expedition to halt for one moment while the injured nose was being attended to, and he took up the interrupted matter with Soma before the blood had been staunched.
Kaipi worked himself close to me just before midday, and, with one eye upon Soma and the other five carriers, whispered a message.
"Soma much friend of big man."
"How do you know?" I questioned.
"Talk to him out back of camp last night," he murmured. "Me make believe sleep, me watch. I think I kill him to-day."
"Kaipi," I whispered, "if you wait a little while I promise you that you'll have your revenge for Toni's death. You watch Soma and the others, and when the time comes you can give him all he deserves. If you stuck a knife into him here Leith would shoot you."